1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to workstations or test platforms for use by laboratory technicians to perform tests on specimens of blood, and in particular to testing workstations or platforms having prearranged holes and slots for receiving various size specimen tubes, gel-cards, reagent tubes and/or reagent bottles in an organized manner on a workstation;
2. Description of Related Art
The introduction of new Gel-Technology in a blood bank laboratory made the standard workstations obsolete because the laboratory technologist could not handle both traditional test tubes and the new Gel-Technology on one workstation. A gel-card is a device which comprises six microtubes on one card having a bottom portion that is thin and extends the width of the gel-card which is typically 2¾ inches wide and 2 1/16 inches high. Gel-cards were developed by Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics of Raritan, N.J. Instead the laboratory technologist was forced to use equipment which was not suited for the new gel-card technology and had to divide testing into sections or use multiple pieces of equipment which cluttered the work space making it cramped, confusing and error prone. Various errors were reported in determining a patient's blood type such as a confirming test not coinciding with an original test, specimens were misplanted, and test tubes which were previously next to each other were now separated in different areas. In particular, antibody screens, which had previously been done in test tubes next to the patient specimens, were now performed using the new gel-technology in a different location of the work space away from the specimens making it more difficult to match patients with the associated gel-cards. This problem caused errors in placing the wrong specimen in the gel-card or mismatching the patient with the gel-card, and mismatching antibodies with the patient.
A workstation, platform, or rack was needed which received traditional specimen tubes, test tubes, and new gel-cards and in other platforms the capability of receiving reagent bottles. Otherwise, the laboratory technologist was required to set-up patient specimens and their tests in different locations or different times, and it was time consuming and confusing for the technologist to remember what test had been completed and on what patient specimens. More equipment was needed in the work area to perform testing, causing the work area to become smaller, cluttered and confusing.
The following U.S. patents disclose various trays in the prior art for receiving test tubes and containers:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,790,547, issued Apr. 30, 1957 to Dorothy Jean Sutton, discloses a laboratory tray for use by laboratory medical technicians in medical diagnosis. The tray comprises several sections of different depths for stacking slides, for receiving hypodermic syringes, and syringe needles, for receiving clean pipettes or for miscellaneous supplies, and the tray comprises a panel having a plurality of apertures of varying dimensions to receive larger test tubes, smaller test tubes, jars for holding dry sponges or absorbent cotton, and solution bottles. However, this tray does not have slots for receiving gel-cards for testing purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,880,865, issued Apr. 7, 1959 to David C. Knox, discloses a hematologist tray comprising an outer tray and an inner tray. The outer tray comprises a plurality of various apertures for receiving restriction tubes and holes to support bottles, beakers, etc. An inner tray comprises ten pairs of openings for receiving test tubes and adjacent to each pair of openings is a slot to receive a pair of slides. However, this tray does not have the capability of handling gel-cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,526, issued Sep. 14, 1971 to Douglas J. Rem, discloses a test tube holder comprising a plurality of apertures for portability and segregation of test tubes and protection of their contents. The holder comprises a U-shaped channeled base member and a C-shaped tube-retaining support member. The C-shaped member comprises a plurality of annular, axially aligned apertures wherein upper apertures are formed perpendicular to a top wall while lower apertures are formed perpendicularly of the bottom wall 28. Other embodiments show apertures only in the top wall and do not extend into the bottom wall for conveniently handling other devices of less height. However, again there is no capability of receiving gel-cards.